The Norwich Ice Rink will continue to be cooled by the same system that failed last month, leaking ammonia gas.

The facility re-opened Wednesday after losing 27 days because of the incident, which cost more than $70,000 in repairs and lost revenue. The failure came about 10 months after a vendor that wants to install a different cooling system warned the current one was in danger of breaking down.

The Ice Rink Authority spent more than $42,000 to repair the rink’s existing chiller, which helps regulate temperature to maintain the skating surface. The machinery was installed when the facility opened in 1995 and had beeing running continuously until it gave out last month.

Authority members said they’re confident the chiller won’t suffer another malfunction, but they still plan to issue a request for proposals to solicit bids on the installation of new machinery to explore the costs.

“Everything is still on the table,” authority chairman Peter Desaulniers said. “But I don’t feel like it’s critical right now, so we can really take some time and come up with a good decision.”

Officials said this week the Feb. 13 incident in which a seal blew on the chiller and forced gaseous ammonia into the air was the byproduct of a lax maintenance schedule. In the wake of the incident, Desaulniers said several safeguards have been implemented to prevent a similar circumstance in the future.

“Equipment does fail — there’s no question about that. I think had a better maintenance schedule been performed in the past, the possibility would have been lessened,” he said.

Mike McCullough, a Sprague resident who is team manager for the Bacon Academy and Norwich Free Academy hockey teams and coach in the Southeastern Connecticut Youth Hockey Seahawks league, said he has no safety concerns with the authority’s decision to use the same chiller.

“To be honest, I didn’t feel there was a huge safety concern when the incident occurred. My concern with repairing the equipment they have is ‘How long is that repair going to be durable and be OK?’ ”

However, a representative from Sylvan Lake, Mich.-based Thermo Source, which specializes in the construction of geothermal energy systems at ice arenas, said the rink’s governing board knew as far back as April 2012 the chiller was in danger of failing.

The company, which provided workshops to the authority last June and the City Council on Feb. 4, conducted a site walkthrough prior to its first presentation and alerted authority members of the chiller’s poor condition, according to Bob Morrell, a Thermo Source sales representative.

“We knew it was going to fail. If you ever looked at it, it looked like an old German submarine,” Morrell said. “It was stunning to me, the decision to repair that piece of equipment. You don’t know if it’s going to work for two years or two days.”

Page 2 of 2 - The company offered to loan Norwich a chiller after the breakdown as it worked to upgrade the rest of the rink, according to an email exchange between Morrell and Desaulniers, which Morrell provided to The Bulletin.

During a special authority meeting on Feb. 21, members cited a legal opinion by Corporation Counsel Michael Driscoll that prevented them from engaging in a contract with Thermo Source without putting the entire project out to bid first.

“The authority can set rates, rents, fees and charges to cover operation and maintenance expenses but since it does not own the rink and does not have a lease on it, it probably should not on its own commit to major expenditures beyond the revenue it has received or can very realistically anticipate receiving within a short term horizon,” Driscoll wrote.

In a Dec. 18, 2012 press release issued by Thermo Source, Morrell said the company’s integrated mechanical system would remove the risk of incidents like the one that occurred last month.

“The existing ammonia compressor system not only requires regular maintenance performed by costly commercial refrigeration technicians, but can become extremely dangerous if a leak were to occur,” he wrote.

Nobody was injured in the February incident, but the building was shuttered for nearly a month, and an estimated $30,000 in potential revenue was lost during that time.

Longtime authority member Michael Goldblatt said he wants to explore the idea of geothermal power for the rink, but supports using the current technology until officials can learn more about all the options.

“I think an option is to get another 10 years out of those chillers. Probably a better maintenance program would have kept it going a little longer. We’re not under duress right now. It’s unfortunate this thing broke, but it’s back up now,” he said.

Desaulniers said the authority may reach out to Norwich Public Utilities to conduct an energy survey of the facility to see where costs can be found. He said such a plan wouldn’t require an outside bidder because NPU is a city agency.

“If we can work within our own utility, I don’t think we need to for an RFP,” he said. “They’re the ones we should go to for energy conservation.”